Notes scribbled on a gamblers program

Daily Archives: February 25, 2017

The other night I was sitting in the recliner thinking about how things have changed in the world. As us “old timers” like to refer to as the “good old days.”

Technology has brought us to a new frontier there is no doubt about it. Sports? Hell yes. Now, we can watch pretty much any game on a tablet or laptop computer. Even our cell phone can bring us the live feed from the arena. Back in the “good old days” we would have to listen to the sports scores on the radio. A quarter past the hour or a quarter before the hour you’d find me tuned into KNX News Radio awaiting sports scores. “The Lakers lead the Spurs 78-67 in the third” would be all the information we would get until the next broadcast.

Horse racing was no different. The morning of the races, my pal Bill Garr from KIEV radio would start off the morning early. Each racing day from the track he’d broadcast the day’s scratches. “In the third, take out the four and seven.” Then, we would have to wait until either quarter past or 15 minutes before the hour to get the stretch calls from KNX News Radio. “the results of the fifth race are now in and for the call here is track announcer Harry Henson” would be the intro, with good old Harry’s voice bringing in the results. “Into the stretch, It’s Blinkey Ben in front by a length, Old Feathers is second …” If you missed the days racing, don’t despair. Bill Garr had his racing wrap-up show on each racing evening to do his own race results and race re-creations for fans. However, you missed that you were out of luck until the next morning when the newspaper would hit the driveway.

Of course as time went on, the invention of the “900 numbers” came to pass and for a fee you could get results and changes billed to your telephone. We thought that was technology.

Yes, things have indeed changed. Now, instead of waiting at the local liquor store for the runner to bring by the Daily Racing Form for the next days entries and past performances I just have to wait in front of my computer to get them.